For many, 2020 has been a year filled with confusion, pain and uncertainty.  As with most crises, the pandemic has challenged many long-held paradigms, altered sacred-cow perspectives, forced change, and inspired spectacular innovations.  It has even spawned a number of heroes.  While some suffered mightily, others made fortunes because of the crisis.

Most people, including many business owners, spend a great deal of time stuck in a rut of limiting patterns.  They sit in waiting, cemented in limbo until they are forced by a life-changing event to reluctantly leave their comfort zone. Some people become so addicted to their Zone that they actually require a crisis to force them out of their comfortable, performance-diminishing behaviors, mindset, and decision-making. Committed zone-dwellers require a high degree of discomfort in order to change and propel themselves out of mediocrity.

The natural human tendency to cling to the status quo costs some entrepreneurs millions of dollars of profit, considerable frustration, and thousands of hours of stress.

A breakthrough resulting from crisis (aka: an inflection point) can happen quite rapidly. Some common examples of events that lead to inflection points include sudden job termination, divorce, or unfortunate health news. While events like these can be devastating emotionally, they can also serve as a proactivity trigger — a wake-up call to transform performance by replacing destructive habits. An inflection point is a traumatic experience or moment that forces an individual to re-evaluate all their beliefs and behaviors, altering the direction of their life. Unfortunately, some never spot opportunities that can arise from chaos, or take full advantage of dramatic change and uncertainty.  They never experience an inflection point.

Conversely, history is also littered with stories of many heroes who have used the toughest times to ascend to greatness, taking advantage of turbulent events to springboard themselves and the teams they led to new heights. By substituting empowering behaviors for limiting ones, they used pain as fuel to transform their performance and produce amazing results.

Why is it that some people surrender their future to circumstances and “wait for their ship to come in…”, while others take control of their futures and consistently evolve, transform, over-achieve, and win?

Outstanding result-producers are nearly impervious to external events.  During periods of intense turbulence or sustained stability, the most consistent performers commit to continuous improvement and choose to invent a better future, while many others choose to live into their default future.  Your default future is the one you have already written (without even realizing it). It is the future that will likely occur if nothing unexpected comes along to jolt you out of your Comfort Zone—a future that will probably place you squarely in a deep pool of mediocrity.  Is this the future you are seeking to create for yourself?

The highest achievers do not require an inflection point.  These special individuals refuse to surrender themselves or their destiny to a default future.  Instead, they choose to proactively change in order to tip the odds in their favor.  Superior achievers will certainly seek new opportunities that might emerge from a crisis but will never wait for a disaster to pry them out of their Comfort Zone.  Hyper-performers actually train themselves to be most comfortable OUTSIDE of their Comfort Zone, adopting a mindset and using a process that forces them to consistently re-evaluate their habits and behaviors.  Just like brushing their teeth or mowing the lawn, achievers simply make the process part of their routine. This performance-inducing process becomes part of their practice, one that pays huge dividends.  This practice is the gift that keeps on giving.

The Performance Practice includes 4 components — Community, Coaching, Curriculum, and Collaboration.

No special skills are required to adopt these components.  Like most empowering practices, anyone can choose to adopt them, but only a small percentage actually do. With just a bit of discipline, anyone can make the Performance Practice part of their habitual routine. An effective performance practice is not a function of skill, it is a function of will.

While none of us know what 2021 will bring, we can be certain there will be some surprises. 

We may even experience behavior-changing catastrophes, but please don’t wait for an inflection point. 

As you reflect on 2020 and begin your planning to achieve new heights in the new year, take close inventory of your behavioral routine. If you find you are missing one (or more) of the components of the Performance Practice, choose a better routine so you can invent a much better future. Start today.  You will be amazed at the result.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2020. All Rights Reserved.

I suspect you’ve heard the assertion that “you should never discuss politics or religion!” There is certainly an argument to be made to support this statement. There is also a counterargument.

Do you (or should you) ever discuss sensitive “taboo” subjects like these during sales conversations? Let’s explore the pros and cons:

To say the least, these are interesting times.

Fires, storms, floods, and power-outages are devastating significant swaths of geography across the United States. Stay-at-home policies have destroyed many businesses and frustrated millions of parents. Traditional media, social media, and political activists are whipping people into a frenzy. Emotions are high, tempers are short, a number of cities are burning, crime is on the rise and the nation seems to be more polarized than at any point in recent history.

Unfortunately, many people have stopped listening, closed their minds, and dug into their respective corners. Confirmation bias is rampant.

With all of this upheaval, it might seem insane to broach any potentially emotional subject.

Before we decide to totally avoid these stormy waters during sales conversations, let’s explore selling a bit further and start with some very basic questions.

Why do people really buy?

Why would they buy from you, versus your competitor?

How do (should) you currently differentiate yourself from your competitors?

During sales interviews, what percentage of time do (should) you spend talking and sharing your pitches, benefits, expertise, opinions, demos, and product knowledge versus questioning, listening, understanding, and connecting with decision-makers at both an organizational and personal level?

Fortunately, we know the answers to these questions, backed by many dozens of studies and tons of research. In the interest of keeping this article relatively short, I’ll provide you with a summary of what we know:

Why do people really buy?

First, companies do not buy. People buy. Individual people who represent companies. You may be thinking, “duh, everyone knows that”. But in reality, few salespeople understand it, and even fewer use this reality to gain advantage. Most reps focus on selling to the company, not the decision maker.

Next, people who buy do not buy for intellectual reasons from experts. They buy for personal, emotional reasons from people that they trust. Buyers trust people who make them feel comfortable and connect with them at a feeling level. Some buyers may attempt to justify their purchase intellectually, but they will always ultimately make their purchase decision based upon how they feel. This is another basic fact overlooked by the vast majority of sellers.

Finally, purchase decisions include two primary components — Product and Process. Buyers decide based upon the product you offer and the process of buying (their experience). Most sellers believe that Product is most important, but research proves that the Process a buyer experiences has a much greater influence on their ultimate purchase decision.

 Why would they buy from you, versus your competitor?

Contrary to popular belief, buyers do not buy from people they like. They buy from people they trust, and they trust people they perceive share their values & beliefs. They trust people that they feel connected to from both a tangible (conscious) and from an intangible (subconscious) perspective.

 How do (should) you currently differentiate yourself and your company from your competitors?

If your company is like most, your product or service is not totally unique in the marketplace. If it were, it would sell itself. You likely have serious, tough competitors. Seeking to gain incremental advantages, your competitors probably pay more attention to your features, benefits, and marketing messages than your prospects do. Today, unlike decades ago, innovation and product development occur at lightning speed. In other words, if your product or service currently offers a significant advantage, you can bet that your competitors are working on erasing that advantage right now.

The bottom line here is that the only sustainable way a small to medium sized company can effectively differentiate itself is the manner in which their sales reps interact with their customers and prospects.

During sales interviews, what percentage of time do (should) you spend talking and sharing your pitches, benefits, expertise, opinions, demos, and product knowledge versus questioning, listening, understanding, empathizing, and connecting with decision-makers at both an organizational and personal level?

The correct answer is far less than you are spending today. If a salesperson is opining and presenting more than 15% of the time, they are boring the prospect, probably destroying trust, and rapidly diminishing their chances of success.

Instead, reps should invest their time seeing the picture through the buyer’s lens, not their own, and hopefully facilitating mutual discovery in pursuit of a new, better buying vision. Salespeople should be laser-focused on caring, connecting, infinite curiosity, facilitating discovery, sincere interest, and learning — not only about a buyer’s organizational or technical needs, but also about the personal, emotional, compelling, TRUE buying motives of the decision maker. These feelings and motives will never be revealed via pitches and demos.

Now that we know the answers to these foundational questions, let’s return to exploring whether or not it is prudent or wise to discuss politics or religion during sales conversations.

To review, we understand that people buy from people they trust, people they believe are like themselves, people they perceive to share their beliefs and values. Simon Sinek (and several others) have shared many stories and plenty of data supporting the fact that people buy from companies and people who care about the same things that they do. And it seems most care more today than usual about their respective ideological and political beliefs. With this in mind, do you think it might be advantageous to know how your buyer feels about these ultra-personal issues?

I’m not suggesting here that you start spewing your personal beliefs or ideological and spiritual views upon your prospects. I’m also not suggesting that you begin asking who they are voting for in November. Doing so could be extremely dangerous.

However, knowing about your buyer’s most personal views could be priceless.

So, proceed carefully, but assertively.

Salespeople must always earn the right to explore sensitive issues (like money or decision processes), and remember, questions are always more effective than statements when facilitating discovery. We never learn by telling.

The more you know about your prospect and the things they care about at a visceral level, the greater your chances will be of doing business together.

The more information you have about what your buyer cares about most, the better. Period.

The more a buyer is willing to share with you (about any subject), the better. And the more personal the issue happens to be to the buyer, the better.

In this regard, there should be no “taboo” subjects. The most successful salespeople know that there no good news or bad news, there is only information. And personal, emotional information is the most valuable.

So, the question is not really which subjects you should or should not explore with your buyers.

The crucial thing is the manner in which you explore them.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2020. All Rights Reserved.

A GIGANTIC Opportunity

Is your Sales Manager (or sales management function) effectively growing, leading, and directing a consistent, productive, high-performance sales team?  If so, congratulations!

If not, I have good news, and bad news.

The bad news is that you are likely missing out on hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of dollars of profit year after year, and that things will likely worsen with a remote sales force.

The good news is that most of your competitors also lack effective sales management. In other words, you are competing with mediocrity. Many studies confirm that the vast majority of private companies conduct “sales management” reactively (versus proactively) as an afterthought. Group and individual sales meetings are random and inconsistent, if at all.  For most companies, Sales Management activities are conducted as a fly-by. They are ad hoc, only occurring “when there is time…”.

Businesses that employ effective sales management consistently outperform their competitors, but during times of rapid change and economic turmoil, sales management process improvements have an expanded effect. Today, they can help you quickly capture market share, grow your bottom line, and strengthen your company — a unique and tremendous opportunity.

Here are the facts:

• Many SMBs do not have a dedicated manager of sales (or anyone who owns the sales management responsibility).
• A large percentage of private businesses do not manage sales at all.
• In many instances the “sales management function” is conducted part-time (and quite poorly) by one of the company principals.
• Effective sales managers spend more than 75% of their time coaching, developing, motivating, recruiting, and holding reps accountable.  These are the Critical Activities. 
• Most “sales managers” perform none of the Critical Activities.  Instead, they spend time reviewing accounts, generating reports, going on ride-alongs, and rescuing.
• Less than 10% of salespeople have the skills and strengths to perform effectively working from home.
• Remote sales teams require a much greater level of sales engagement and direction in order to succeed.  They also require an increased level of real coaching.

This may all sound daunting or overwhelming, but there is a massive silver lining and more good news.

1. There are simple, time tested processes available to quickly upgrade your sales management effectiveness and team performance.
2. Upgrading does not require a lot of time or money.  It simply requires using time differently, making some different commitments, and adopting some new processes and habits.
3. The current economic and employment environment has created an unprecedented opportunity to upgrade the effectiveness and performance of your sales organization, for both the near and long term.

Few, if any, companies will maintain status quo in 2020.  There will only be winners and losers. Effective sales management will be a vital component of companies that end up in the Winner’s Circle.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2020. All Rights Reserved.

The 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto principle) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

In recent history, this rule has certainly proven to be true in Sales. For decades, approximately 80% of sales have been produced by 20% of salespeople.

While a very small percentage of owners have addressed this daunting issue and created a more effective team using time-tested sales, sales management, assessment, and sales recruiting best practices, the vast majority of business leaders simply exacerbated the problem by spinning wheels and spending too much time with non-performing reps, while coddling their top performers.

The 80/20 sales ratio is about to change. Here’s why:

• Buying behavior has changed.
• Margins are being squeezed.
• Sales Cycles are becoming much longer.
• All Sales Teams are now remote. They will remain primarily virtual for the foreseeable future.
• Many companies are downsizing their salesforces.
• High unemployment and reduced spending will weed out many of the weak and average salespeople, leaving only the best ones.
• Unfortunately, most of the “average” or “good” reps will not possess the skills to grow sales, increase market share, and maintain margins. They will flounder.

2017 - 2019 studies indicate than 55% of sales reps produce a negative ROI, and over half of all newly hired reps do not last a full year with their employer; and these studies were conducted during the most prosperous economic times.

In just a few short months, the pendulum has swung 180 degrees from a Seller’s Physical Market to a Buyer’s Virtual Market.

To compound the lack of skills among salespeople, the vast majority of sales managers are unskilled when it comes to effective coaching and managing a virtual workforce.

Despite the fact that some of the most talented salespeople will finally be available and seeking new employment, most companies are still clueless when it comes to effectively locating, landing, and launching the great ones.

We are all now playing a totally different game, one that requires a highly consultative sales process, advanced organizational, listening, and social selling skills, superior mental toughness, and empowering Sales DNA.

Less than 5% of sales reps possess all of these skills.

Before 2020, one-fifth of salespeople generated 80% of the results. Going forward, we can fully expect the 80/20 ratio to look more like 95/5.

Think hard about this. The Top 5% will not win 80% of the profitable business, they will win almost all of it. The top 25% will take some low margin business. The rest will get only the spoils.

If your sales team is currently on fire and setting new records, congratulations! If not, you may want to seriously consider taking a hard look at the skill level and pipeline viability of your salespeople (and managers), and to honestly assessing whether or not they have what it takes to provide your company with a significant ROI. You can then decide whether or not it makes sense to make some adjustments.

Here’s the good news (I know it took a while to get here)…

The combination of predictive science, effective processes, and a very high (and perhaps short-lived) unemployment rate present a very unique, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to rapidly and dramatically upgrade your sales team, allowing you to produce much more with less. 

Copyright © Joe Zente 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Many businesses will begin to re-open over the next few weeks. While there is certainly no shortage of opinions of the pros and cons of the timing, guidelines, and regulations, there seems to be many more questions than answers with regard to the speed and trajectory the economy will take from here, and the best success strategies for the rest of 2020 and beyond.

We do know for sure that selling has changed. While most salespeople tend to be optimists, it is highly unlikely that most will return to their pre-Covid19 activities, returning to their offices and territories and business as usual. There are many reasons for this, but here are just a few:

1. Efficiency:  Time is all salespeople have. It is their best asset. Reps that invest their time skillfully succeed, those that don’t fail. It does not take a rocket scientist to quickly figure out that field salespeople burn up tons of time, and that salespeople selling virtually via videocom can visit with 2 to 4 times more prospects per day that those travelling around in their territories.
2. Costs:  Again, it doesn’t take Einstein to conclude that selling virtually can save a lot of money.  Cars, maintenance, airfares, hotels, meals, and parking can cost a needless fortune.
3. Coverage:  Geographical positioning and placement has always been a challenge for sales leaders and hiring managers. With virtual selling, this challenge basically evaporates.
4. CRM: Since the advent of digital tracking systems, salespeople have been notorious for devising creative excuses for not updating their CRMs.  The majority of these excuses took some form of “too busy”, “on-the-road”, “lost connectivity”, or “away from my computer”.  Virtual selling removes nearly 100% of CRM compliance excuses.
5. Your Customers & Prospects: Even if you and your salespeople DO want to return to face-to-face meetings, you can probably expect that a large percentage of your prospects and clients may PREFER to communicate via videoconference.  Some will even mandate it.
6. Children: If your salespeople are ready and committed to get back in the saddle and hit the road to make sales calls, keep in mind that most kids will be home for the rest of the school year.  It is also doubtful that they will be attending summer activities like camp, and many may not be returning to school in the fall. If the kids are home, your salespeople will likely need to be home as well.

In other words, virtual selling may become a necessity — perhaps for a while, and maybe forever.   Is your company ready?

Re-shaping and upgrading your Sales Team for a Better Normal starts with a comprehensive understanding of the skills, strengths, DNA, and mindset required to succeed in the new selling environment.

While the post-Corona selling era and situation will present huge challenges for most businesses, any wise owner can quickly convert these challenges into a big opportunity. While most will fail, some salespeople and managers WILL succeed beyond simple survival – they will dominate.  I outlined some key success requirements in last week’s blog. Here are a few more critical factors to consider as you formulate your BETTER Normal Sales Strategy…:

• Only 15% of salespeople have the questioning and listening skills requires, and only 5% have mastered all the consultative selling competencies.
• Only 31% of all salespeople have the ability to thoroughly qualify an opportunity.
• Only 41% have the ability to sell value.
• Only 41% have the skills & strengths necessary to work from home, and only 7% of sales managers have the coaching skills necessary to develop a remote sales team!

Despite the fact that selling has been relatively simple for the last 3 years, less than half of salespeople were able to achieve quota. With selling freezes, demanding buyers, longer sales cycles, and more, it has never been more important for your salespeople and manager(s) to maintain margins.

The good news is that you have science and predictive validity in your arsenal.

If you’d like to learn more about which of your team members possess the skills to grow your business, maintain strong margins, and fill these various new, demanding sales roles, feel free to email me or click here.

Continued Success!

Joe

Copyright © Joe Zente 2020. All Rights Reserved.